Malawi Style Cob Curing.

[Tangwena]

So after sampling 4 diffrent strains from 7 diffrent plants, it is very evident that the RSC malawi gold and TLT malawi gold have benefit from this process way way more than the others, which are ace malawi, and Somali taxi ride from rare dankness. Is there anything to this? Like does it have something to do with the terps/cannibinoids? It's weird because as normal flower both ace malawi and STR are better smoke honestly

Its hard to make judgement on any one strain as they all benefit from different methods of curing, it takes many harvests of even one strain to find the best curing methods for that particular type of plant.
Every harvest I tweak the cure a bit more on each different strain.

Dont forget the villagers in Malawi had been growing the same plants for generations.
Every village or area had different plants and different cures usually along tribal boundaries.
We have the luxury of many many strains and hybrids to grow, mastering the cure for each takes many harvests.
As TD said above aging also effects all cures some more than others.
I have found a cob of Panama x Mulanje that ticks all my boxes for a particular type of high. But if I cure it slightly differently it may not have the same appeal.

 

[moose/MI]

Well, that's not Morning Weed!

Going through my cobs at the 2- month mark. Moving on to one's that I did more like a brick.

A Seeded branch of Swabi-Dragon a landrace Pakistani crossed with a worked Panama Red line that has White Widow and G13 way back in the genetic downline.
It was an attempt to see just what I could get away with growing here at 42.2N.
We're warmer than we've ever been before outdoors.

Unfortunately my Super Panama Haze seedling from Ace dampened off.
That was going to be a test.
But I'm encouraged by this Swabi-Dragon cross and some Oaxacan crosses I grew to keep trying more and more pure Sativas in the future.

So number #11 on the cob journey. Interesting colors. It seems dry. The bag was stuck to the cob more than others.

But seemed dry. It felt dry all the way to the center in my hand. Compared to the tootsie-roll candy like center of more wet ones I've made.
It felt dry/light, homogeneous before I stabbed it with the meter.
(I'll go back into my notes and check the process)

I don't know if that's great or not?
I don't know if it's too soon to be that dry or perfect.
Time will tell and the data is saved for comparison.

Lovely colors - interesting smell.
This was my last plant to come down and is just starting to cure as flower.
Not much comparison yet other than this won't be my Morning toke.
The flower has been giving some chocolate notes. None of that with this cob.

I figured it wouldn't be for the morning but wanted to give it a honest assessment.
Just 1-hit in my dynavap and I was higher than I wanted to be that early, in that way. If that makes sense.

Not that it was devastating.
Only that I've been enjoying a smoother soaring Oaxacan/Hawaiian with my coffee that goes in a particular direction.
This was instantly more stoney.

It normally is a Green all day plant according to the breeder.
I got this Purple pheno that no one had seen yet. So who knows how it will turn out.
Back in the vac bag.

 

[moose/MI]

Cob #12 @ the 2- month mark.
Princess Buttercup a hybrid tester I ran for Twenty20 Mendocino. Dirty Blonde x White Truffle.
Another that I knew wouldn't be my Morning toke.

Amazing terps for days on this one. I made the mini-brick twice as large.

This far in, on number #12 and experiencing no mold on any of the different processes on any of the cobs gives me confidence.
I suspect I'll be doing larger cobs in the future.

From my making wine days.
You could play around with wild 1gal recipes to be curious.
But if it was a recipe I was at all confident in it always seemed better to do 3-5gal batches.
Some would always be better than others and if was nice to at least have a few bottles when it turned out great.

Plus I'm old enough that the bricked weed holds lots of nostalgia.
As a Chef I say "You eat with your eyes."
and so this just adds a little something to it I guess.

Amazing aroma!
This one felt light in the hand too. I'm starting to be able to tell before I stick it.

I'll have to go back and check my files for the process.
Determine what I did/how many days/etc. for it to be this dry at this point.

Great colors!
Back under vacuum for more time.

 

[Tangwena]

Looking good brother nice colors as well its a good thing to document your process as in a year it will be forgotten otherwise.
I tried another taste of a second Panama x Mulanje a greener pheno and the taste, smell and effect are unreal.
I will be growing the seeds from this plant again for sure. It seemed better than the purple pheno much more laughter and energy.

 

[Aetheric]

3 month old Kush Diesel cob (2 days dry, 7hr sweat) Smells of coffee, chocolate, licorice, much different than the jar cure which smells like fresh Kush. I'm loving this technique, it's like turning flowers into hash! Smoked very smooth and burned a long time, effects felt heavier with more body load than jar cured. I'm chewing half of the smaller piece as I type this, should be a lovely day As a bonus, I included a pic from my winter grow project, some freshly picked Golden Teachers

 

[moose/MI]

Cob #13 @ the 2 month mark
Another little brick.
This from a seeded branch of a green pheno of Mountain Gold by Green Mountain Seeds. 59%

Dry to the touch when I removed it.
Light in the hand. I can tell it's dry all the way through when I pick it up.
No tootsie-roll center.
Smell/terps are amazing.

Wow! That's the driest yet. 🫤
Not sure if they're will be enough moisture to turn it?
I'm leaning towards that it will... but just take longer.
Just a gut feeling no science behind that.

So back in the bag.
It was surreal/weird when I found a seed as I packed my dynavap vape to try it.
Forgot that this was a seeded branch.

Immediately I was 15 again behind the bleachers at the Friday football game. (1974)
A friend gave me my very first puff - seeds and all of probably Mexican in a brass pipe made of parts.
Snap Crackle Pop!

A word about this Mountain Gold.
Oaxacan x Hawaiian with a green and a purple pheno.
I'm waiting till Valentine's Day or more into the cure to be sure.

Everybody's different but the selected green pheno that I chose to do a seed increase with has quickly vaulted to the coveted spot of first toke every morning.
It could be that the Purple will come along. And I have a couple options.
Maybe something else will cure and move up.
But right now I'm disappointed if I don't do the Mountain Gold first.
I'm that happy with it.

I do a big vape hit with my coffee ️ and just take off. Occasionally I'll do another or 3. But sometimes I'll check the dyna and I've haven't hit the one I last packed.
I'm an overthinker and this gets me thinking in the morning as I watch the news and plan the day.
In all the "just right" ways.

I wanted to put it out there that selecting for the green pheno was worth the time for me.

I made multiple crosses every which way but leaned heavy into the green pheno on a hunch.
I hadn't made a bean in 40 years.
Never grew the same thing twice normally back when I was active.

I bought the regulars and did the increase without ever having tried the weed in an attempt to save some time.
I'm getting old. It was good practice.

I seem to have gotten lucky and found something I will try and grow again.
I'll pop a bunch and select for the green pheno.
It grew well for me outdoors at 42.2N.
I hope the purple comes out well as I have twice as much of that.
Tickled with the green though.

 

[sickzone]

I finally did it,registered and read around 300 posts.
A huge Thankyou to everyone that has contributed to this mighty thread by Tangwena .Been an awesome read.
Been totally oblivious to the outside world the last week,which I do at times.Almost like a vacation.

I only grow every 3 years.So storage has been an issue. I use Grove bags but find I have to add boveda packs to keep me at 60-62 after a while.
But reading all the other benefits I am devoting 90% of my upcoming harvest this week to cobs.
My preference is indica, I will be harvesting cdlc next week.


So with 2oz of amnesia left I decided to cob this 3 year old bud.
Thought I could do a practice run of sorts.
Well making the cob I just totally sucked.
Dry weed pouring out the sides,then ripping the parchment paper.
So i said stuff it,I'll just throw it in the bag and roll

So I guess 2 cobs I can learn something from.
Or at least get into a cob routine .

I'm thinking no sweat for such old bud.
I placed 1 in the gun safe that is 68f.
Should I place this one on a seedling mat closer to 80f-86f?
The other is on the router showing 75f

Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I can start my cob journey on here with you all from the upcoming harvest.

And again thankyou all

 

[Scottay]

3 month old Kush Diesel cob (2 days dry, 7hr sweat) Smells of coffee, chocolate, licorice, much different than the jar cure which smells like fresh Kush. I'm loving this technique, it's like turning flowers into hash! Smoked very smooth and burned a long time, effects felt heavier with more body load than jar cured. I'm chewing half of the smaller piece as I type this, should be a lovely day As a bonus, I included a pic from my winter grow project, some freshly picked Golden Teachers
View attachment 19129353
View attachment 19129354
View attachment 19129355

Hell to the yeah. Love my shrooms and my herbs!! Just getting my cob train rolling!! Happy Saturday!! Looking great!!

 

[Scottay]

Hey there you filthy Cobheads!! So I've got this one month old aged cob. Lighter and bowl for reference. Fairly dry. 1 smaller joint between 3 high tolerance smokers and it's got an A+ rating. I told them to come back in 2 months and we'll talk. We tried a joint earlier of the same bud but jar cured and although very good we all 3 concur that the cob was 1. Smoother. 2. Stronger and 3. Slower burning. (We hit the joint 23 times between us. 17 on the jar cured buds) Here's a few pictures. The close-up is a bit blurry. The cob itself weighs 19.4 grams. Happy Saturday!!

 

[Kimes]

what is the science behind eating cobcured weed and getting high off it? I thought it has to be heated before it gets psychoactive..? would appreciate links, if this has been discussed here, thnx

 

[Taima-da]

You are right, the science is behind
as of yet

 

[moose/MI]

Cob #14 @ the 2-month mark.
My largest one at 56 grams
A worked Panama Red line crossed with a Pakistani Landrace. Swabi-Dragon

Nice color. Smells clean, fresh, limon?
I'm still waiting on the flower to cure out
I've been getting hints of chocolate on the flower and incense.
Not getting that on the cob. It'll be interesting to see if they stay that different or meet somewhere in the middle?

Smashed it pretty good

I could tell when I picked it up that it wasn't as dry as the previous 2 bricks I made.
There's a different feel to a moister one. It's not tootsie-roll center but not popcorn dry either.

This is where a lot of people decide to move their flower from hanging to curing.
11-12% reading on the small stem.
Time honored.
More time and a experience will tell me if this is the goal with the cobs.

Looks good - smells good - feels good

Took a puff in my dynavap. Second hit of the morning. Instantly a different feeling from the soaring Oaxacan x Hawaiian that I had before it.
This could be the the Pakistani and earlier crosses used to shorten the time on the Panama.

I chose this cross because it had the Panama in it. Wasn't sure I could pull a 14 weeks strain off outdoors.
It is supposed to be a very green plant and as you can see I got a purple pheno.
So who knows.
I just wanted to comment on the change in buzz.
Many of you have commented on a preference for pure Sativas.
I got a little sense of that this morning.

Back in the vacuum bag she goes.

I did happen to cross that favored Oaxacan x Hawaiian green pheno to this Swabi for practice.
So maybe there will be some improvement.
All too early to tell at this point.
Well see how things are around Valentine's Day.

 

[ost]

what is the science behind eating cobcured weed and getting high off it? I thought it has to be heated before it gets psychoactive..? would appreciate links, if this has been discussed here, thnx

page 101

 

[Scottay]

what is the science behind eating cobcured weed and getting high off it? I thought it has to be heated before it gets psychoactive..? would appreciate links, if this has been discussed here, thnx

When you decarboxylate cannabis it's like switching on a light switch. It makes the THC active. I believe the fermentation process turns on the light switch and makes it active. As a matter of fact the other people I shared the cob with I told them that you could eat the jar cured herb with ranch and call it weed salad because it's not activated yet. But the cob.... yes.... already active!!! I ate .75g of some other cob and it was pleasant. Hurry up and wait a while!! Happy Saturday ya filthy cobheads!!

 

[ost]

My winter harvesting is complete and I managed to cob up an expected dry weight of 6oz tried different density, moisture, temps and sweat times and now all I have to do is finish the 4 week cure and just hurry up and wait for them to age. This was the most enjoyable harvest ever.
View attachment 19125660

The really wet, pushed to its limit, dark cob had a slight soapy smell when I stopped the fermentation but disappeared quickly and took on a mild unripe banana scent. I dried for 20 hours and then broke it into large flake and eventually peeled apart the individual buds over the next 4 hours to let some more moisture out. It was so satisfying peeling the paper thin buds, they were stiff, tacky, hash oil soaked.
View attachment 19125650 View attachment 19125649 Then I left out a tester piece to further dry and squished the bits back together like a crumble kake and cured for last 4 days. Today it gave me the biggest surprise by having a soft fresh neroli scent and a beautiful oily sheen! Where did that perfume come from?
View attachment 19125652 The tester piece I smoked after my first T-break attempt in a decade and I’m a convert. Very stealthy, no smell/taste, no cough. All her usual effects that I enjoy were enhanced but instead of hitting with a punch, she was a total creep. Intensifying waves as tide came in, a bit of head pressure on the peak and slower waves as tide went out. I was entertained for 5 hours before I was ready for something else. And most amazingly no drowsiness, the biggest difference was that I was very alert and “in the moment” for the most part although I still managed to lose time too haha.

The 3 teacakes give me 3 different colours (hard to photograph) but smell quite similar, and there’s a strong warm fruity smell to them. They fill the house with their fragrance. I took a piece from the 48 hour sweat before I put them back and will try that later.

The Colombian jerky stick was done at 24 hr sweat, 3 day fermentation and has been curing 4 days. This one has the coolest range of colours developing, the leaves are almost black and the cob is so shiny it looks wet in places.
View attachment 19125651

And then there’s the 4oz of Colombian squashed hard into a brick under the vacuum and body weight, skipped the sweat and straight to 30C for 3 days. It’s so dense that it’s generating internal heat and I’ve had to re-vac daily as the bag is loose whenever I check. Change happening faster than anticipated. The smell is intensely strong and nothing I can describe but I wish I could bottle it! I’m moving it to cure now, I was planning a lighter touch with this one but I guess I don’t have a light touch! I can’t wait to take a bite out of this in 9 months!
View attachment 19125654 View attachment 19125655 View attachment 19125657 View attachment 19125658 View attachment 19125659

And lastly I tried sweating some loose buds in a mason jar 24hr sweat, 24hr ferment, finish burping jars as normal. They were pretty wet and I don’t think this technique was great as the smell/taste is gone but it gave me instant smooth refined no-cough smoke and all the effects remain intact, not any different from the raw buds. I’ve mostly been using them for chewing and making tea. They do taste much better than decarb’d buds but the effect is a bit lesser, maybe needs more time. What’s quite fun is brewing 2-3 with some tea and chewing them one at a time as I drink. I can feel the effects building from the chew, then the tea and for the next 90 minutes or so it’s like I can feel when each swallowed bud kicks in and intensifies the buzz. If I do this technique again I will use drier buds at a lower temp but really I was just looking for a short cut to a cob-light experience while I impatiently wait for my collection to mature.

Next harvest in 12 weeks so that will be a good time to sample and choose how to proceed with the next lot. I’m off to test the teacake.

Stay healthy and high all you wonderful cobbers!

hardest thing for me is waiting for the long cure

 

[Kimes]

page 101

thank you

 

[Scottay]

Starting some autos. Future Cobs hopefully in around 100 days. Going straight into 7 gallon pots!! I had started some before and stunted them so I'm spraying them with colloidal silver and hopefully get some seeds. Since those won't get any yield might as well try to get some seeds!! Happy Saturday you filthy cobheads!! Here's a couple pictures of the popped seeds.

 

[Weezard]

Kinda like pets. If you give them names it's gonne get harder to chop 'em down.

 

[Tangwena]

Cob #14 @ the 2-month mark.
My largest one at 56 grams
A worked Panama Red line crossed with a Pakistani Landrace. Swabi-Dragon View attachment 19130623 Nice color. Smells clean, fresh, limon?
I'm still waiting on the flower to cure out
I've been getting hints of chocolate on the flower and incense.
Not getting that on the cob. It'll be interesting to see if they stay that different or meet somewhere in the middle?

View attachment 19130624 Smashed it pretty good View attachment 19130625 I could tell when I picked it up that it wasn't as dry as the previous 2 bricks I made.
There's a different feel to a moister one. It's not tootsie-roll center but not popcorn dry either.

View attachment 19130626 This is where a lot of people decide to move their flower from hanging to curing.
11-12% reading on the small stem.
Time honored.
More time and a experience will tell me if this is the goal with the cobs.
View attachment 19130627
Looks good - smells good - feels good View attachment 19130628 View attachment 19130629 Took a puff in my dynavap. Second hit of the morning. Instantly a different feeling from the soaring Oaxacan x Hawaiian that I had before it.
This could be the the Pakistani and earlier crosses used to shorten the time on the Panama. View attachment 19130633
I chose this cross because it had the Panama in it. Wasn't sure I could pull a 14 weeks strain off outdoors.
It is supposed to be a very green plant and as you can see I got a purple pheno.
So who knows.
I just wanted to comment on the change in buzz.
Many of you have commented on a preference for pure Sativas.
I got a little sense of that this morning.

Back in the vacuum bag she goes.
View attachment 19130651
I did happen to cross that favored Oaxacan x Hawaiian green pheno to this Swabi for practice.
So maybe there will be some improvement.
All too early to tell at this point.
Well see how things are around Valentine's Day.

Love the colors that should age nicely from here.

 

[moose/MI]

Cob #15 @ the 2-month mark
My last one of my outdoor season.
A mix of the Mountain Gold and Swabi-Dragon.

Dry, light - no tootsie-roll center. Smells great.
My process has been consistently producing these close to 12% numbers.

At this point I'm not sure if that's good or not. If they turn then I'm well on my way. No spoilage so far etc.
I know I can reproduce these results.

If not I'll have to make some adjustments towards the moister side.

Great colors - Size is about a 64gauge cigar

I threw this one on the scale on a whim. Still 19 grams

Back in the vacuum bag.
That's it for my outdoor season.
15 total. A variety of cures.
A month or so more and we'll cycle back through them all again and see how they are doing.

Thanks! Tang and everyone who contributes to this thread.